Direct Energie rider Lilian Calmejane was able to make his mark on the 104th Tour de France by soloing to victory on the riders' first day in the mountains.
The stage opened up from the start, with multiple attacks taking place in the early kilometers.
The first attack came from Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates) at the gun, with another small breakaway group forming behind, but 8 kilometers later the peloton caught up and all riders were back together in the pack.
As the strategic attacks continued, a group comprised of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) and Aleksey Lutsenko (Astana) were able to build a 25 second lead on the peloton after 25 kilometers.
33 kilometers in, however, the three-man pack had been brought back by the main group.
As the peloton approached the only intermediate sprint checkpoint of the day in Montrond, 45 kilometers into the race, teams began preparing their sprinters for the race to the line.
Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) would end up beating out Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) to the line and capturing the 20 points.
50 kilometers into the stage a four-man group made up of Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondial), and Jasha Sutterlin (Movistar) made the next big surge.
21 kilometers after their break, the four-man lead group continued to hang on, with a 15 second gap on the field, as the peloton began to break apart behind them. The effort would be for naught however, as 72 kilometers into the stage, the break was brought back into the pack.
At the halfway point of the stage, 94 kilometers from the finish, a large lead group of sixteen riders had formed and created a sizable cushion of 3 minutes 35 seconds on the peloton.
As the lead pack began their ascent of the first climb of the day up to the Col de la Joux, Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) and Serge Pauwels (Team Dimension Data) raised the tempo and began to put a gap between themselves and the rest of the lead pack.
Barguil was able to beat Pauwels to the summit of the Col de la Joux at 1043 meters in altitude, and capture two points for the mountains classification.
Soon after Barguil and Pauwels reached summited at the Col de la Joux, a five-man chase pack of Greg Van Avermaet, Michael Matthews, Marcus Burghardt, Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), and Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale) began to close the game on the two leaders.
On the climb up the Cote de Viry, Barguil, Matthews, Bakelants, Van Avermaet, Burghardt, Pauwels, Ulissi, and Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) were working together in the lead pack, as Lilian Calmejane and Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac) began their chase of the 8-rider lead group.
Warren Barguil was once again victorious on the climb, as he was his second king-of-the-mountains victory of the day and take 5 points in the mountains classification, ahead of Bakelants, Pauwels, and Van Avermaet.
Once the lead group reached the final climb of the day up to the summit of le Montee de la Combe de Laisia Les Molunes at an altitude of 1200 meters, Van Avermaet, Bakelants, and Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) quickly fell off the pace and left six riders in the lead group.
17 kilometers from the finish, and 5 kilometers from the the final summit, Lilian Calmejane was left as the lone leader on the stage, with the peloton riding 1 minute 30 seconds behind Calmejane and looking to close the gap.
Calmejane was able to reach the summit at le Montee de la Combe de Laisia Les Molunes first and capture 10 mountains points, while Robert Gesink (Lotto NL-Jumbo) had broked away from the chase group and rode 30 seconds behind Calmejane.
Ultimately Lilian Calmejane was able to hold off Robert Gesink by a 37 second margin, and capture a courageous victory on the first day in the mountains.
Rounding out the top five were Guillame Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Nicholas Roche (BMC), and Roman Kreuziger (Orica-Scott), who finished 50 seconds back of Calmejane, respectively.
Calmejane's victory marked the second stage win for a Frenchman at this year's edition of the Tour de France, after Arnaud Demare (FDJ) won on Stage 4. For his efforts, Calmejane will wear the polka dot jersey for Stage 9.
Little change occurred in the peloton, as Chris Froome (Team Sky) will maintain his 12 second lead on teammate Geraint Thomas in the overall standings, while Marcel Kittel will wear the green jersey on Stage 9 and Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) kept his place atop the best young rider classification.
Team Sky also kept their lead in the team classification, with a 1 minute 59 second cushion on BMC.
Stage 9 will once again put the field up against rugged mountains, as riders will cover 181.5 kilometers on the route from the commune of Nantua in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alps region to the city of Chambery in the French Savoie.
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